Access urged for undocumented
Capital District Latinos host event for SOMOS conference in Albany
ALBANY — The need for robust services that communicate directly with the Capital Region’s undocumented Latino community was on display as access to COVID-19 vaccines became available.
Micky Jimenez, executive director of Capital District Latinos, called the number of community members who had opted to receive their first vaccine “shameful.”
But she understood undocumented people were concerned they would be asked for identification and could face deportation if they went for a vaccination. And so the organization worked to provide safe settings and offer clear messaging to inform them about the vaccine, which led to a substantial uptick in shots delivered.
“The past three years made it very clear to me that the needs of our community, especially for our undocumented brothers and sisters, revealed a huge hole in our social safety net,” she said Friday.
Jimenez and the Capital District Latinos, at their Central Avenue center, helped to kick off a weekend of Latino-focused events in Albany for a conference hosted by SOMOS, which draws everyone from community members to the governor.
Capital District Latinos, immigration advocates and a handful of Assembly members pushed for broader protections for undocumented individuals in New York. They called for greater access to health care and immigration attorneys and fiscal issues that are a part of debates at the state Capitol with the budget due at the end of the month.
“They say it’s a downstate issue and it’s not,” Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz, D-queens, said.
Cruz, who is the first “dreamer” lawmaker in state history, is trying to steer legislation that would seek to provide access to health care for undocumented people who have a household income below 250 percent of the federal poverty line. The bill is carried by fellow Queens Democrat Assemblywoman Jessica González-rojas.
Earlier in the day, state Attorney General Letitia James issued her support for “dreamers,” those who were born in the United States to parents who are undocumented. The action, an amicus (friend of the court) brief filed alongside 21 other attorneys general, came in response to efforts in Texas to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.
“For thousands of New Yorkers who have known no other home than our welcoming state, DACA has meant they are able to stay with us and contribute to our communities,” James said. “When other states try to tear down this successful program, they are trying to rip families apart and remove New Yorkers from our state, and that I will not allow.”
The need to celebrate people coming to New York, including refugees, is particularly important to Assemblyman Jonathan D. Rivera, a Buffalo Democrat.
“People coming to America for the first time are changing our neighborhoods for the best,” said Rivera, the first Latino from upstate to be elected to the Assembly.
Several speakers noted the value of the state ensuring immigrants have access to a specialized lawyer for complicated legal proceedings so that they could remain in their new home and continue to contribute to the economy.
Meghan Maloney de Zaldivar, senior associate for regional outreach, shared a story from recent days of undocumented people who were pulled over by border patrol agents in the North Country. They were on their way to pick up family members who are farm laborers, she said, and now face deportation.
“Three farmworkers didn’t come home to their kids,” Maloney de Zaldivar said.